WAR IN IRAQ

WAR IN IRAQ
Key dates for Ohio
March 19, 2003: President Bush announces the United States is at war with Iraq.
March 23, 2003: Two soldiers from the Cleveland area -- Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland and Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, of Bedford Heights -- are listed missing. A few days later, the two become Ohio's first Iraq war casualties when their bodies were found. Both were members of the 507th Maintenance Company, which was ambushed near Nasiriyah after making a wrong turn during fighting.
Aug. 3, 2005: Fourteen Marines from the Brook Park-based 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines are killed in the deadliest roadside bombing of U.S. troops in Iraq. The company loses 16 Marines this month.
Oct. 21, 2005: Capt. Tyler Swisher, 35, a 12-year Marine Corps veteran from Cincinnati, becomes Ohio's 94th casualty of the war. The Defense Department said Swisher was killed by a roadside bomb in Al Anbar Province.
Oct. 25, 2005: The U.S. military death toll hits 2,000 based on count by The Associated Press.